C-19: PPE, Work & Family

Family - are you avoiding contact with other family members who do not live in the same house?

  • Yes

    Votes: 15 100.0%

  • No

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    15
TGHusker

TGHusker

New member
The article below, prompted some questions.  I'd like to discuss how we are taking steps to protect ourselves besides

the standard washing hands, social distancing and the stay at home measures most of the USA is under.

What PPE are you wearing in public if any when you have to get out?  Are you taking other precautions?

Are you working from your place of business, at home, or have you been laid off because of this crisis?

https://www.vox.com/2020/3/31/21198132/coronavirus-covid-face-masks-n95-respirator-ppe-shortage

A portion of the article is copied here:

During the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, experts and officials cautioned against widespread public use of face masks. US Surgeon General Jerome Adams tweeted, “STOP BUYING MASKS!” He added that masks “are NOT effective in preventing general public from catching #Coronavirus, but if healthcare providers can’t get them to care for sick patients, it puts them and our communities at risk!”

But as the outbreak has worsened, experts have increasingly acknowledged that public use of masks could help prevent the spread of Covid-19, the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), previously resistant to encouraging mask use by the general public, is now reportedly considering it.

The shift in expert guidance has come in the past couple of weeks — as the coronavirus has spread throughout the US. A recent report by public health experts for the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute (AEI) was unequivocal: “everyone, including people without symptoms, should be encouraged to wear nonmedical fabric face masks while in public.”

This all comes with a big caveat: When it comes to traditional medical masks, we still need to address a supply shortage for doctors, nurses, and other health care workers before people buy their own masks. A big public run on masks could make an already critical shortage of masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE) for doctors and nurses even worse. The shortage doesn’t just hurt health care workers, but all of us — because we need as many doctors and nurses as possible to stay healthy so they can treat and save people who are sick, not just with Covid-19 but with other illnesses too.
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I rarely go out except for supplies. I don't wear PPE (yet, but I was just sent a custom mask that someone sewed for me, so maybe), but I practice social distancing when in public.

 
Been working from home for 2 weeks per my employer's direction. 

I don't wear PPE in public and right or wrong I shake my head when I see healthy people wearing store bought N95s. I feel like it's contributing to the shortage that means my fiancée has to reuse masks at the hospital. Maybe that's not true, but that's how I see it ATM.

 
I wear throw away gloves at the grocery store when I go. Based on the OP article, I may wear a face mask going forward..  My wife and I are mainly at home - other than walking in the nearby park for exercise.

I've been working at home now for 10 days due to a risk factor.  Our business is an essential manufacturer.

When I go to the store, I change in the garage and put on fresh clothes before coming into the house.  Wash the 'store worn ' clothes in hot water.

My wife 'disinfects' everything brought into the house - wipes it down.  Mail, groceries, me (just kidding but I do sanitize my hands before coming in)

I keep my distance. 

Our son and his wife work at a local hospital - so we haven't been with them for 2 weeks or babysat their 2 year old - miss her :cry .  We are concerned for them but they don't work in the area were c-19 patients would be.

 
I wash my hands more...that is probably about it.

I guess I wipe things down a bit more.

I tried going golfing the other day but it was totally booked up.

 
ZRod said:
Been working from home for 2 weeks per my employer's direction. 

I don't wear PPE in public and right or wrong I shake my head when I see healthy people wearing store bought N95s. I feel like it's contributing to the shortage that means my fiancée has to reuse masks at the hospital. Maybe that's not true, but that's how I see it ATM.
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a$$ to mouth?  

I agree...I saw two maskers at the store today and sort of did a double take and kind of wanted to shake my head.  I saw a lady wearing gloves too.

 
teachercd said:
I saw a lady wearing gloves too.
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I've seen a lot of people wearing gloves in Tulsa.

Some grocery stores have also installed plexiglass between the checker and the customer. The Lowes near our house  did the same thing .    Stores have also put tape on the floor helping customers to keep the 6 foot social distancing rule.

 
TGHusker said:
I've seen a lot of people wearing gloves in Tulsa.

Some grocery stores have also installed plexiglass between the checker and the customer. The Lowes near our house  did the same thing .    Stores have also put tape on the floor helping customers to keep the 6 foot social distancing rule.
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Yeah, I have seen that...

and today at Walmart they were wiping down carts.

 
Both my wife and I are in healthcare, we both work away from where Covid patients would be for the time being - but both of us have been told we will be flexed to the frontline if the demand required it (we're RN & RT). We have a 1 year old, so working with Covid patients then coming home to baby scares us both to death. 

 
Just a quick comment at the moment:

My wife is a nurse at an Omaha hospital.  They are all required to wear surgical masks at all times now at work.  I asked her why, because "we were told we should presume we are all positive at work"...

Not because there was a confirmed case, but because there most likely is someone in the building carrying the virus.

 
funhusker said:
Just a quick comment at the moment:

My wife is a nurse at an Omaha hospital.  They are all required to wear surgical masks at all times now at work.  I asked her why, because "we were told we should presume we are all positive at work"...

Not because there was a confirmed case, but because there most likely is someone in the building carrying the virus.
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This is what should be done at every hospital around the country, but there are not enough masks to go around; My fiancée's unit is now wearing paper gowns... And they're in direct contact with positive patients.

 
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